Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Lyrics to OpenBSD 3.7 Song Released

Posted by timothy on from the openbsd-will-outlive-dick-clark dept.

Eh-Wire writes "Theo has announced the release of the lyrics to the OpenBSD 3.7 song "The Wizard of OS". Theo writes in the announcement, "Please be sure read the commentary I have written next to the lyrics of the song. The artwork and lyrics for each of our releases relate to something big we have been dealing with over the last 6 months of the release -- our fight to get programming documentation and redistributable firmwares.""

6 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. Well.... by jd · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The software is good. No question about it. The approach they are following is undoubtably on the right lines. Their artwork is better than that on many distro sites. They have a pretty reasonable mix of pragmatism and idealism.


    Their filk... well... uhhhh... I feel certain better can be done. Hell, even I write better. They're working with the news since the last release. The British 60s satirical news series "That Was The Week That Was" had a song for every week's news - with infinitely more bite, even with an infinitely smaller timeframe.


    I like the idea of a song roundup. I found many of the songs in Spitting Image to be as powerful and as cutting as any of their sketches. I just think that they need someone who can pen some better lyrics.

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  2. Re:3.6 was better by QuantumG · · Score: 2, Interesting

    As far as musical merit goes you're probably right, but I liked Pond-erosa for the comedy value.. hearin' that fish "lose his cool" made my day.

    --
    How we know is more important than what we know.
  3. Did no one read the mentioned commentary? by bersl2 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Send a message that open support for hardware matters. A vendor in Redmond largely continues their practices because they get the chipset documentation years before everyone else does. What really upsets us the most is that some Linux vendors are signing Non-Disclosure Agreements with vendors, or contracts that let them distribute firmwares. Meanwhile both Linux and FSF head developers are not asking their communities to help us in our efforts to free development information for all, but are even going further and telling their development communities to not work with us at pressuring vendors. It is ridiculous.

    Can someone explicitly corroborate or refute this statement? If that's true, that's pretty low.

  4. Mention of OpenBSD in a Forbes article by strlen · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Somewhat of off-topic, but did anyone else catch a mention of OpenBSD in a late issue of Forbes magazine? (Url is hnya).,
    in the context of a young enterpreuner selling wifi access point / firewall combos, hoping to compete with Cisco? Granted OpenBSD was mentioned once [as opposed to a whole centerfold and a cover story they had on Linux several years ago], but it's still not bad for a mainstream publication.

  5. Re:3.6 was better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting
    What are the other OpenBSD fans out there hoping for some day?

    For the shorter term:

    Unified Buffer Cache. OpenBSD's FAQ, up to v1.49, suggested that it was on their todo list, "This option may change when the Unified Buffer Cache is completed and is part of OpenBSD", but this was taken out completely from v1.50 of the FAQ. Apparently because the section in the FAQ on tweaking the Buffer Cache with BUFCACHEPERCENT "gets people into serious trouble". So the reference to UBC went with it.

    I hope this does not mean that UBC is now off their todo list. NetBSD's performance of cached filesystem data is incredible if you compare it side by side with OpenBSD and repeatedly access filesystem data that is more than about half the system RAM. So I beleive from my observations.

    Not long ago, I needed to run multiple passes on a file that was over 500M with 1G of RAM. OpenBSD thrashed the HDD constantly whereas NetBSD read the file once (as shown with the HDD light) and then read it over again from memory very quickly. Obviously this is a situation where UBC would really shine and it did, showing NetBSD perform the task about 7 times faster. This could have been solved on OpenBSD by making my process more complex to allow a single pass or using more RAM or perhaps even increasing the BUFCACHEPERCENT. But it seems UBC is overall much more efficient for varying conditions and would be at the top of my list for inclusion in OpenBSD.


    For the longer term:

    I would like to see FreeBSD and DragonflyBSD SMP strategies mature to the point of leveling off performance wise and then see OpenBSD work towards integrating the best SMP system. Hopefully their current SMP efforts lay a foundation which can be built on with either of these systems, as opposed to perhaps becoming a big mistake that would have to be backed out of. With dual-cores becoming the norm soon (Intel, AMD, IBM970 and there is even already dual-core G4's), SMP is going to become a very big issue.


    On an unrelated note, I would really like to see the dual-core G4's, with their REAL full bandwidth on-chip DDR RAM controllers get put into the next round of Apple Powerbooks. Apple? Are you listening? I have cash on standby, waiting to buy an Apple Powerbook with at least 2GB DDR RAM which is accessible to the CPU at the full DDR RAM speed. Until you deliver that or a G5 Powerbook, I will wait...

  6. Dark Side of Oz by Zakias · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Roger Waters would sue you... except the lawyer's dead! LOL j/k - no seriously, it's great that the OpenBSD group did the whole Wizard of Oz/Pink Floyd theme. I'm pretty certain there's a bunch of /.'ers around that have never done this so here's the connection:

    Requirements:
    Wizard of Oz DVD or VHS
    Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon CD

    1. Hit play then pause on the CD, so it's ready to play at an instant's notice, but make sure it's at 0:00 or your sync will be off
    2. Start the movie. Just at the end of the 3rd roar of the MGM lion hit play on the CD and mute the movie. One of my best party experiences ever. Did anyone else think Toto was the Devil whispering evil things in Dorothy's ear?

    Ha! But no, as a Pink Floyd fan I was literally rolling on the floor with this one. Great job guys :-)

    Adam